FateChronology
by Hono no Tora
Summary: When a malicious creature forces the Doctor's companion- and Counter Guardian, Shirou Emiya, to face the pain and despair of his existence, he sets out on a suicide mission through time to eradicate himself before he has the chance to become a Heroic Spirit. Can the Doctor help the lost knight, or shall he, too, fall into the darkness that is the Last of the Time Lords?
1. Reunion

**So sorry that the cover has David Tennant, but I decided that instead of having him as the Doctor, I wanted him to be Matt Smith, for character reasons, and because there is an 800 year time skip between the Ponds and Clara. Also sorry that it doesn't really seem like Matt Smith, and is, therefore, kinda boring, but it was a bit of a last-minute thing and I don't want to change the whole chapter to fit his character. I'll do that when I write later chapters, though. And no, this isn't yaoi. If it was I would have to commit suicide. Just happens to have mostly male characters and one of them happens to be bi =w= Anyways as the Doctor would say, Review boxes are cool. Therefore, you should put them to use. **

The Doctor's hair was tossed about ever so slightly in the wind as he stepped out of the TARDIS, and he took a deep breath with a big grin on his face. The grass was so green here, and the sky almost a surreal blue. Yet, it was still Earth, on the hills of the English countryside. It was always England. The place that could be as peaceful as this one moment then turn to chaos the next. Why couldn't be America? Or Japan, maybe?

Shirou's crimson coat flapped in the breeze as he followed the Doctor out the door of the time-travel device that mystified him so. The place was tragically nostalgic- the emerald hills seemed so carefree, and the fluffy, yet wispy clouds looked as though they could carry childhood dreams on their backs.

Yet were these not the same hills that had been stained with the blood of a dreamer's men so long ago? After a solemn moment of lingering over that fact, Shirou abandoned the thoughts in the dust and let himself enjoy the sun shinning on his shoulders.

With a deep inhale through his nostrils, the Doctor spread out his arms and flopped onto the ground, his back smushing the soft grass below. "Cornwall, two thousand thirteen," he exhaled gleefully as his companion took a seat in the green sea next to him. "The world's been racked with disasters recently, and people just keep on living their lives. But this year hasn't been quite as bad. Well, at least not as bad as the few before it."

"So what are we here for again?" Shirou asked. "I'm sure we're not here to relax in good times while they last," he smirked.

"A-nd you'd be right!" The age-old time traveler's black boot-clad feet flew up in the air before plummeting back down, swinging his torso back into an up-right position. "Jack said he had some news from Torchwood, and I would actually like to enjoy this for a little while."

"What's Torchwood?" Shirou asked, though he didn't take his eyes away from the rolling sea of grass.

"Ah, yes, Torchwood…" The Doctor leaned back on his palms, which were flat on the ground. "They didn't have the best of starts, or reformation, at that. But now it's only a group of-what? Six people? Yes, six people who are dedicated to do what's right, and if they're stuck, then they call me up. They also keep me well informed on troubles I've missed in their era. So we keep close communications, - or at least, we used to...Haven't really talked to them since before by last regeneration, really."

"Hmph. Interesting," Shirou replied rather mindlessly. He decided it was his turn to simply lie down on the ground.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at him and let loose a bark of laughter. "You halfway look like Christmas," he said.

Shirou looked at him, confused. "How so?" His smirk stayed on his face.

"What, with your bright red coat and all this green around you." His words were a bit choppy with laughter.

"I guess so," was the Counter Guardian's reply.

"I do hope someone's been peeking at my list again. That was definitely fun, the last time they did."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Of course, it would be in a pub that Jack decided he wanted to meet up. The Doctor wondered perhaps if he had remembered that time he had told him that if he bought him a drink then he might win at least some affection. He just hoped that the Time Agent wouldn't try to hold the Time Lord to his word…

Shirou had ordered a mug of ale, despite the fact that alcoholic beverages had never quite been to his liking. He figured though that it couldn't do any harm to have one every once in a while.

The Doctor glared at the clock hanging on the wall. "Ugh, where is he? He said he'd be here by now…" He began glancing all over the pub for the Time Agent, but to no avail. He was nowhere to be seen. He sighed.

"So," the Doctor began. "What all do you know about England? You told me that you've only been here once or twice, but not really on a tourist trip. You said you were more on like a business sort of thing?"

Shirou paused from putting the mug to his lips when the question came before continuing to sip. "Yeah, I never came here to look around much. An old friend of mine studied here, though. And most of what I know about this country is about a particular part of its history and whatever my friend would spout about it. The latter wasn't very much." He took another sip. He didn't very much enjoy having memories of days of old resurfacing, but if it was a mere leisurely conversation, he didn't think that it would be too painful. Especially if he was half drunk.

The Doctor took a swig out of his own mug, which gave him an opportunity to relax a bit after being so tense over Jack's lateness. "So what bit of Britain's history are you familiar with?" His upper lip was coated in a film of off-white foam, which was quickly removed with the wipe of a sleeve.

Shirou chuckled. "You're terribly inquisitive, aren't you?"

All of a sudden, a dark-headed man slid into the booth seat next to the Doctor, a move so unexpected that both the Time Lord and the Counter Guardian's drinks were very nearly lost.

"About time you showed up," the Doctor scolded. "I was getting worried that you'd never come! In all of your-" he paused. "...Jackness."

Jack- Shirou assumed that that was the identity of the man- grinned. "Aw, you were worried about me!" He scrutinized the Doctor, after it hit him that he definitely wasn't the same as he had been the last time they had met. "Where did your eyebrows go? Other than that, I'd say you look fine. Nice bowtie, by the way." He then took a look at the white-haired man, whose face looked rather surprised, though cynical, and then to the drinks in the men's hands. "Ah, dang it. You already bought him a drink." He crossed his arms and seemed to pout. "I was gonna buy one for you, but I guess that's not happening-"

"Cut to the bloody chase, Jack. What was the news from Torchwood?" The Doctor shifted somewhat uncomfortably in his seat before Jack's response.

"Jeez, so quick to the point…" Again, he looked to Shirou. "Oh, and by the way, Captain Jack Harkness." He held his hand out across the table, and Shirou took it.

"Shirou Emiya," he replied.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to be busy this weeken-"

"The news Jack! Tell me!" The Doctor's pompadour was disheveled as his whole head shook along with his erratic hands, grasping Jack's attention. Shirou quirked an eyebrow at what Jack had tried to say to him.

"Oh, right!" The Time Agent pulled from his pocket a strange object. It looked like a black egg of sorts, but was riddled with strange yet elegant patterns in chrome. The thinner end of it tapered away into a fine tip, and it looked like it would hurt if you hit someone with it. The strange egg was the size of a small bird's egg.

"We found this just after neutralizing an alien we haven't encountered before. We're assuming it's of the same species, as it was found right where the beast had disappeared-"

"A beast, you say? What was it like?" Shirou butted in.

Jack looked disturbed for a moment. "I don't know…It was like…It looked like something out of a nightmare- and I don't mean like your average alien. But the worst part was, that when we got close to it…it felt like…like everything had just fallen into despair, and nothing else existed but hate and sorrow…"

The Doctor and Shirou gave each other concerned looks. "A manifestation of negative emotions?" Shirou gave a stab. Then he looked to the Doctor. "Can aliens do that?"

"I don't know…It isn't unheard of for aliens to feed on emotions, though. It could be entirely possible." The Doctor lifted his drink to his lips again. "So if you just neutralized the alien, what'd you do with it?" He asked Jack.

"We contained it in a neutralization restraint, but I don't know that it'll hold for very long. When that thing was still on the loose, the feelings it gave off ended up causing several people to commit suicide, often taking others with them." The Doctor blinked as the mug was suddenly missing from his hand, and was instead in the hands of Jack, who was already chugging it down. After letting out a pleasant sigh and having emptied the mug, save for a bit of resident foam, he looked to Shirou. "You're not a man of many words, are ya?"

"Not really," was Shirou's reply.

"So, what exactly is it you need me to do?" The Doctor wanted to interfere with Jack's moves as soon as possible to keep them all at a minimum.

"Oh, I just thought I'd let you know, so that if we really end up needing your help, you won't be caught entirely off guard."

"Alright. Would you mind if we take that egg thingy with us to study it?"

Jack, whose nose had turned a bit red, looked at the Doctor with a look of betrayal. "'We?' 'Us?' Oh, I see! He's _with_ you, now isn't he? That's just nice." He crossed his arms.

The Doctor sighed. "Jack, you really can't just take things for what they are, can you-"

"Whatever, I see how it is. I guess I'm just chopped liver," the Time Agent put the back of his hand on his forehead, as if to feint.

Shirou couldn't tell if the guy was just joking the entire time or if he was serious.

"The least you could've done was ask me if I wanted to come with you guys."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "You don't even know if we're actually going anywhere- I don't know if we're going anywhere. And you've got Torchwood stuff to do anyways, don't you? Besides," the Doctor leaned towards the Time Agent. "I honestly don't think he's your type."

Shirou went wide-eyed. "Woa, he's been serious!?" He didn't mean to sound so rude, but it had just kind of come out.

The Doctor shrugged. "Sort of, but not really. Jack is Jack, and that is that."

"I'm right here," Jack said, his arms crossed, his red nose in the air, and his back turned towards the Doctor.

"Go home, Jack. You're drunk." The Doctor patted Jack's shoulder.

Then something came to Shirou. "Okay, you can't have gotten completely drunk just from what was left from his drink," he pointed out.

The Doctor's eyes rolled as Jack was interested in Shirou again. Or at least in hitting on somebody.

"Oh, yeah, there was some Japanese girl over there and she saw my watch and was totally into time travel and stuff," he pointed to another corner of the pub. Shirou followed the gesture, and his eyes widened and he gasped at the sight of the dark headed woman sitting there.

"What, you know her? Please tell me her name because I could not get a name out of her-" Jack started up. But before he could continue, Shirou had already slid out of his seat and was casually striding across the pub- clearly not trying to be inconspicuous. He stopped at the bar and ordered another drink.

"Ah, c'mon!" Jack cried. "What makes him think he can get a name out of her?!"

"Probably because he might actually know her, Jack. I doubt he would be so quick to buy a girl a drink if he didn't know her," The Doctor suggested with a sigh.

"Pfft, well that's not just weird. Aren't you supposed too buy a girl a drink if you _don't _know them so that you can _get to _know her?"

"Doesn't matter, Jack." The Doctor was getting a bit tired of the drunk version of the Time Agent.

Jack tried looking for some remnants of fermented wheat juices left in the Doctor's mug, but to no avail. He set it down. "Weeell…I guess this just leaves me and you, Doc-"

A hand was immediately in his face, shoving his drunken self out of his seat and into the floor. "No, Jack. Only in your dreams," was the Doctor's only response.

Shirou sat the glass on Rin's table. Rin, who was nearly asleep with her head propped on her hand, all supported by her elbow, said in a gruffy voice, "No, Jack, I already said I don't want another one."

Shirou couldn't help but chuckle at her speaking English. It wasn't half bad, but she still had a hint of a Japanese accent, and that mixed with a British accent was priceless. At least, on the girl that he had had feelings for since the later part of high school. "Well I wouldn't want you to get too drunk," he said.

Her head popped up, her sea blue eyes looking like wide gemstones in the warm light of the tavern. She gasped, and took a long second to deny herself that what she was seeing was real. The way she looked, Shirou could tell that she was thinking that it had to be a dream. But before he knew it, Rin's arms were around his neck, with him nearly loosing his balance. But after the initial surprise, he returned her embrace.

She had nearly forgotten what it was like to be in his arms. No matter how many times she had missed it, and tried to recall, she had failed. But this- this had to be real. It was far better than what she could remember, even in a dream. She choked back a sob, and the warmth of his embrace made her so weak with a nostalgic pleasure, that her knees buckled beneath her for a moment-a moment she savored, despite the pain in her throat. When she nearly fell, his gentle grip on her tightened as he caught her, bringing them closer together, even if only by a little bit and for only a second. Tears finally streamed down her cheeks, and her shoulders trembled as his hand went to stroking the hair on her head.

This _had _to be a dream. He had died-she had _watched_ him die. She had _held _him as he died. And for such a coincidence, or twist of fate, however one wished to view it- for it to be so pleasant, so sudden…It could be nothing other than a dream. And she knew that when she woke, it would only be unbearable to know that he wouldn't be there…But she wanted to indulge in this dream as much as possible. It had been ages since one so lovely had come to her.

"Rin," said Shirou, taken slightly aback by the strength of her reaction. She pulled away for a moment to wipe her face with her red sleeve, which he noted was part of a rather pretty maroon shirt with black dress pants. "Good God," he laughed. "I didn't mean to startle you that much."

Rin's laugh at his priceless comments was somehow mixed with the lump in her throat, and so it came out as hard to tell as to whether or not she had laughed at all. "I thought-" she sniffled. "I thought you were dead!"

She looked at him, almost accusingly, and the tears she had just wiped away were welling in her eyes yet again. He didn't quite know how to respond, as he was not himself from whatever timeline this was. Things between them could have been much different than they were in his own lifetime. "Well, I was…" That wasn't a total lie, though.

"Then how-"

"Not sure yet," he shrugged. "But seems like Alaya wants me to do something or other that's pretty important. So, may as well."

Rin's natural curiosity wanted her to ask further, but the rest of her didn't want to. All she wanted was to enjoy the very fact that he was there. Her fists had clenched his black flannel shirt, and as more tears fell onto his chest. She pleaded, "Please don't tell me that this is just a dream…" She knew it. She would indulge herself in this impossibility, then be terrified of the reality.

"Heh, well if it's a dream, it's been a terribly long and weird one. Heck, I've been traveling around space and time and all of your junk for days now, and I swear this gay time traveler was just hitting on me…"

Again, Rin laughed, but this time it was actually possible to tell. She let herself relax a bit in his arms for a while before Shirou looked around at some of the looks they were getting.

"So, uh…We just gonna stand here hugging or are we gonna sit down and just talk and stuff? You know, the things that people actually do at pubs?"

"Oh, whatever! He is not just that attractive!" Jack countered the Doctor's explanation to what they had just both witnessed. "I've never met anyone, not you, not me, not any alien nor human that can make a girl break out into tears just because he's unrealistically handsome-"

"Then the only possible explanation is that they obviously were close to one another! That, and I'm pretty sure that you've never met Diarmuid." Now he was having fun, just playing with the drunk man. It was hysterical to say something that somehow under minded Jack's reputation of handsomeness and then watch him take it too seriously.

"Man, how the heck'd he get a buch of hugs and stuff? I couldn't even get her name…"

The Doctor looked at Jack. "Buch?" he asked. "You mean bunch?"

"Whate'er, you get my point."

The Doctor laughed. His speech was finally getting slurred.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had taken them only too long to manage to lose Jack on the way back to the TARDIS. They only did it when they decided to take advantage of his drunkenness. They were walking past a tall building, when Shirou got smart. You see, he wouldn't have been so rude had the Doctor himself not made it apparent that he didn't want Jack around anymore. So he looked around for something to improvise-that was what he was good at, right? Looking at a taller than usual building, he pointed to the roof and shouted, "Aliens!"

"Where!?" Exclaimed Jack, turning a full circle and a half before his eyes landed on the taller roof.

The Doctor had a troubled split second; he actually looked to the roof before realizing Shirou's intentions. The two men, and Rin, who the Doctor had allowed to follow, took to running down the street.

Jack, far too drunk to realize their ploy, kept searching for the extraterrestrial on the roof.

It wasn't until the three of them reached the TARDIS that they finally burst into laughter, what with the breath they had left.


	2. Identity

**Hey. Wanna know something? Review boxes are cool ;) Follow the advice of the Doctor and Co., and use the review box. Such actions are greatly enjoyed. **

Rin had nearly had some sort of stroke when she realized who the man in the brown raggedy coat and suspenders was.

The Doctor was studying the strange black egg, when Shirou came to the realization that the two of them hadn't been introduced yet. "Oh yeah, Rin, Doctor. Doctor, Rin."

The Doctor waved his hand and smiled. "'Ello, Miss Rin."

Her jaw dropped. "Wai-…Wait what!? What'd you say his name is?"

It took a moment for Shirou to realize why she didn't give the usually received response of "Doctor who?" She had always been involved in the Second Magic, which was all about time manipulation and multiple dimensions. Not only that, but she grew up studying in London. Of course she had heard of him.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier!?" Shirou saw the Tsundere in her come out when she grabbed the collar of his shirt and began shaking him, or attempting to. "You're going around through time and space with the most legendary of time travelers in the universe, and probably one of the grandest of Heroic Spirits-and you didn't tell me!?"

"I told you I was going through all of your junk! I thought you'd get all excited over that when I told you but you just kept crying and stuff-"

An elbow to the gut kept him from continuing. "I thought you meant you were with another stupid Time Agent, like that Jack guy! You could've been more specific," She pouted a bit, then relinquished his shirt from her grip.

Again, the Doctor was simply amused. It was like watching an old married couple bicker-and for a moment he wondered if, perhaps, that was very nearly their true relationship.

They eventually got to the point of shaking hands, after Rin finally got over the fact that she was, indeed, in the presence of the Doctor.

"So how is it that you two know each other?" the Doctor ventured.

"Ah, well-" Rin began.

"High school," Shirou stated flatly.

"And some beyond that. There was this little war between magicians a while back and we helped each other out."

The Doctor nodded, with a face that said "_interesting"_ more than anything else. "Ah, childhood friends. How nice," He went about, checking a couple of the TARDIS's systems. The room had gotten awkwardly quiet.

Seeing the strangeness, Rin took advantage of the situation and stretched out her arms, accompanied by a loud yawn. "Well, boys, it's terribly late and I'm half drunk. I may as well get as much sleep as possible before the headache tomorrow. Sorry to go to sleep so soon after meeting you, Doctor, but as I said, it's late." She patted the Time Lord on the shoulder as she passed by, and gave Shirou one more glance before going down one of the hallways that led to a bedroom.

"Good niiight," the Time Lord called after her.

When he was sure that she was out of earshot, the Doctor turned to Shirou. "You two must have been awfully close."

Shirou crossed his arms and leaned one shoulder against a sculptured column. "Apparently. Though I guarantee you that I'm not really the me she was hoping for."

The Doctor, who had returned to studying the mysterious delivery from Torchwood, glanced at him from the corner of his eye with a quirked brow. "Really now? Two of you?"

"Not exactly. I am not from this particular time line."

"Oh, please don't use the word 'line' when you're talking about time. It really doesn't work that way."

Shirou huffed. "Either way, I am not from this sequence of events, but rather from another one where the life of Shirou Emiya was very different from the one here."

"Oh? Then how'd you get here?"

Shirou took his weight off of the pillar and strode closer to the control panel where the Doctor stood. "You'd have to ask Alaya for that. Not my area of expertise."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Alaya- so you're…"

Shirou realized then that he had not yet revealed much about himself to the Doctor. "A Heroic Spirit, yes."

"And if you came from another sequence of events, then you must have been the source of that rift in time and space-"

"Indeed."

He should have known. He had seen Shirou do things- things that were hard to explain to anyone with science. Impressive displays of power in the occasional battle. Silence enveloped them as the Doctor recalled how he had met Shirou.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor had detected the rift in the invisible fabric of the universe and had decided to patch it up and investigate-the usual routine for something dramatic to happen.

Unfortunately, it so happened that a Tyronianic Chimera from Sector Seti Alpha 5 had arrived on the scene first. Of course, its main concern wasn't really the Time-rip, but rather eating people and terrorizing London. Turned out, there was a general who had accidentally crashed his ship there, and the Chimera was a living military weapon. He had flown a bit too close to a black hole, and so his ship had gotten super-accelerated and spun off in the direction of Earth- needless to say the thing got loose. Anyways, no one really at fault for the Chimera situation, and the General, from a race of most noble of warriors, did give his most sincere apologies. Torchwood took it from there concerning the cover-up and repairs.

However, it had been in the fray of battle with the beast that the Doctor had quite literally stumbled into Shirou Emiya.

"GET DOWN!" He shouted as he turned a corner and saw the man in red. He and the man ducked just in time enough to dodge a ball of flame that roared past them, crashing into the wall next to them.

The Doctor had already seen the beast, but it never failed to terrify him a good bit, no matter how often he had looked over his shoulder at the thing. It was covered from double-head to snake-like tail in iridescent bone armor, reflecting in reds and oranges, but tinged in a sickly green. One head was similar to that of an Earth lion, the other looked like a mutated goat. Each had black, shinny fangs in their massive maw, and its claws were of the same black material. The places that weren't covered in armor plates were covered in just as dense and shimmery scales. The Chimera's eyes were like flames that burned from copper, a malicious glowing emerald.

The Doctor grabbed the shoulder of the bewildered man who had ducked next to him, and as he stumbled onto his feet, he tried his best to pull the man up with him. "Run!" he shouted, and the man managed himself to his own feet, and took off with the Doctor.

They turned another corner, and the stranger's eyes widened a bit when they saw two aliens-their skin similar to the scales on the Chimera-who happened to be the General's bodyguards. "It's right behind us!" the Doctor informed as he and the man raced past them.

The guards readied their weapons, and braced themselves as they heard the rumblings of the beast whose only use was for the battlefield, but, through an unfortunate series of events, ended up on this bystanding planet.

The Doctor and his new, unintentional companion came into the spacious lobby of the building that was now a battlefield. Green liquid was splattered on the walls and across the floor, iridescent bodies strewn throughout the room. One or two humans had also been amongst the casualties seen. Huge, black smudges darkened the white tiles where the Chimera had scorched the ground, frying anyone in its path.

Fortunately, most everyone had evacuated the premises, thanks to a plan conjured up by the Doctor and the General to lure the creature into the building and doing the best they could to destroy it.

The problem was, the Tyronianic Chimera were bred to be indestructible. So, once the creature followed them back to the lobby, the Doctor was dry out of plans and ideas. From there, it would have to be…well, he didn't know what. That was until he say the man in the red coat surveying his surroundings, obviously already locked onto the objective, despite such little information for him to go on, and formulating some sort of plan, which was far more than what the Doctor had.

The building was multiple floors, and the lobby stretched all the way to the ceiling of the compound. Parts of the floors would protrude out into the space of the lobby. This provided higher ground…

It took only a second for the Doctor to see the gears click in his companion's head. "Come on," were his words as he pointed to the fourth floor's balcony, his deep voice quietly echoing through the room. They went down a small corridor until they came to a stairwell, and they took the steps up to the fourth floor. There, they each stationed themselves behind a column, both still visible to one another. Then they waited. Neither said a word, for fear of giving away their location. Though the Doctor did send the man several questioning glances, wondering how the heck he planned on capturing the thing-or killing it. The first would be preferable.

When they heard it coming, the companion stood from his crouched position, and an ebony bow appeared in his hands from no more than a flash of light. The Doctor was bewildered. He'd never seen such technology before.

Another object came into being- a drill-like sword, a rod of spiraling steel, its hilt and cross guard decorated in blue and gold. It momentarily glowed in the man's hands, then, after fading, had changed into something far thinner and lighter- thin and light enough for an arrow. He placed what would have been the pommel on the string of the bow, and peered behind the column down into the lobby.

There it was, its lion head sniffing at the dead body of one of its former captors. It pawed at it, not sure what to do with it, before striding away, flickering its tail. Then the goat head began nosing at the air, searching for something it had caught whiff of. The lion head joined, and just before their beady green eyes fell upon him, the man in red loosed the strange, spiral arrow.

He made his mark- from the angle he was at, he struck the goat head through one eye, with the tip of the projectile protruding from the opposite side of the muzzle. Though the Doctor didn't see this at first, he knew because of the screeching, roaring wail that emanated from four stories below.

The Doctor took a risk of poking his head out from behind the column too, to see the damage that had been done. The beast was rubbing its face with one paw, fire spewing from both mouths, green muck running down from its eye. It reared its reads, fangs barred with rage, at the source of the arrow-just in time to see a flicker of movement as the Doctor ducked behind the pillar again.

The Doctor held his breath, and he could feel his companion's eyes bore into him angrily, as he had seen what he had done. _"Sorry!"_ He mouthed to him, just in time enough to get the word out before a huge, black-clawed paw landed between them, hauling the massive beast up onto the floor with them. Both heads locked onto the Doctor, whose feet were already prepared to run for his life yet again.

But before he could, a metallic _ping_ sounded and a flash of flying steel glanced off of the armor on the back of the lion head, grasping the monster's attention.

"Hey! Over here!" The man bellowed. As the beast turned to him, he launched his ploy and hightailed it to the other side of the balcony, all the way across the building. Each stride melded into the other as each foot struck the ground, until he reached his destination. There, he jumped over the railing, but hung on to one of the vertical supports of the rails, flinging his momentum to the balcony of the third floor. He rolled when he landed, and crouched next to another pillar as the beast, too, leapt over the edge and back onto the base floor, where it thought its prey had gone. Mystified as to its absence, it began sniffing the air again.

The Doctor still hid behind the structure of the pillar, unsure as to what he could do. The Chimera was pretty much impossible to kill- and he didn't want this man, whoever he was, to die trying to do something as impossible as that. Then again, he had seen many impossible things. Like the weapons that had appeared from nothing in the man's hands. He just couldn't tell if killing the Chimera would be one of those possible impossibilities. But the man kept going forward as though he knew exactly what he had to do- like he knew a way to kill it.

The Doctor watched intently as the man in the red coat backed all the way to the wall on the third story balcony, then, after psyching himself up, he ran towards the edge, then launched himself off of the rail. He slammed onto the back of the unsuspecting beast, letting out a cry on impact, and holding on to the horns on the goat head, he stayed there on its neck as it tossed its head in an attempt to shake him off. When that didn't work, it decided that maybe rolling on its back would get rid of him. And it actually did.

The Doctor cringed as he heard a small something _crack_, and the man on the floor cried out aloud in pain. He tried to hang on to the horns, but his hands failed to maintain their grip. Next thing he knew, a massive scaled paw was pinning him to the ground. The weight of the monster on his broken ribs-he felt two for sure- was enough to make him cry out again.

That was it. The Doctor couldn't remain useless. He managed to not break every bone in his legs as he landed in the lobby, and with the Chimera so absorbed in its prey, he ran up to the head of the lion, held up the oh-so-trusty Sonic Screwdriver up to its ear hole, and put the frequency on full blast.

Though it didn't lift its paw, it was enough of a distraction for the man in red to do what he needed to do. "Trace, on!" he choked, and he held out his hand. He thought of the biggest possible weapon, something massive enough that, when he projected it, it could materialize inside the chest of the monster. As the talons continued to dig into his chest, he held out his hand as it unleashed a bright light.

The Doctor's face was splattered in green, acidic blood. He looked up, and from between the shoulder blades of the Chimera, there was a massive slab of sharpened stone protruding upwards. The entire body of the alien paused and shuddered. It began almost wrenching, in a spasmodic manner. More green liquid dripped from the heads' mouths. The entire length of its tail writhed and flickered.

The Doctor looked down at the man, who was holding the hilt of the weapon up at the thing's chest. The slab of rock was impossibly large for him to hold, yet somehow, as the monster went limp, and though with a groan, he managed to hold both it and the Chimera up long enough to thrust it off of him.

As he wiped the burning blood from his face, he hurried over to the white-haired hero of the day, who lay bloodied and beaten on the floor, breathing quickly yet shallowly. His clothes were torn in several places from where the bony armor of the Chimera had scraped him when it rolled. His skin was raw and bloody underneath.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked- though the real answer was pretty obvious.

After sitting himself up, he held up a finger to the Doctor, and then put his fist to his mouth as he coughed. Flecks of crimson splattered on his hand.

"I guess not…" the Doctor answered his own question.

With an effort, the man stood, and nearly stumbled back a bit. "God, have I gotten rusty…" he muttered to himself. "And I swear, if she sent me here just to kill that thing, I'm gonna freaking kill her…"

He stumbled a bit more, in the direction of the exit of the building. The Doctor kept hearing him mutter different things, mostly curses. "That was way more hardcore than it should've been…What the hell was that thing anyways?…Shouldn't have jumped on it…" And other things of the nature.

"Oi! Do you- Hey, you should probably go to the hospital-"

"Great Uthurlu!" cried a strange voice from somewhere above. Both men looked up to see the General, who then made his way down the stairs to the Doctor and the strange hero in red.

"How-how in the galaxy did you kill the Chimera? They're so rare and treasured in battle because they're invincible!"

"Well apparently they're not anymore," said the Doctor, as the hero seemed too out of breath to really say anything much. His hand was on his side, and he had taken to leaning on another column for support.

The alien general turned to him, then knelt, his left hand over his right breast. "Sir, so powerful warrior-you must surely be the best in the galaxy-"

With a wheeze detectable in his speech, "Alright, look," he took a break to breath. "This isn't Star Wars or some shit like that…And that wasn't all that great. Arthur Pendragon could've taken that sucker out with one use of her Noble Phantasm…" His hand clenched his side further, and he grimaced a bit.

The Doctor came up next to him, then took one of his arms and slung it back across his own shoulders.

"Hey man, what-"

"You need to get to a hospital, and I know a good one nearby."

"Oh…Thanks, I guess."

The alien General made an attempt to follow for a moment. "Wait, if this ah, this Uthah Pendrugun-"

"I think it was Arthur Pendragon," the Doctor corrected.

"Yes, yes- if this person could also have easily defeated the Chimera, the surly Earth is a grand producer of heroes!"

The Doctor shrugged, now that he thought about it. Its history wasn't as rich as some others, but its stories never failed to amaze him. "Well, I suppose you could say that."

"Do you think I could recruit some-"

"Look, right now, I would recommend getting what's left of your men, and gather the dead so they can be given proper treatment on their home planet. Right now, this guy's barely holding himself up and I reeaaaly need to get him off of me, so I got to go!"

"Oh, well…Alright then." His left hand went to his right breast again. "Fair well in all your battles, Doctor, and Red-Garbed Chimera Slayer!"

The damage on Shirou's body-he had finally gotten his name- was so extensive, that the Doctor was stunned that he hadn't died already. Two severely fractured ribs, one puncturing a lung, and several more that were minor fractures. His pelvis had also fractured upon landing on the back of the Chimera-something that the Doctor would never know how he managed to pull off, then continue to fight. An injury like that should have incapacitated any average human, especially a man.

Martha read off some more injuries, including all of the scrapes and gashes, and burns from where the acidic gore had dripped on him.

"He took that way too well…Do you think he's even human?" he asked Martha.

Her dark eyes peered through the window at Shirou, who lay unconscious on the hospital bed. "I don't know…The lung puncture should have killed him by the time you got him here, especially since you didn't have a car or anything. And he's healing unimaginably fast. But his anatomy is all perfectly human-nothing seemingly alien about him, save for his…weird abilities to heal and withstand stuff. And I mean his hair color is a bit strange for someone so young, but other than that." She shook her head.

"Hmm…" The Doctor rubbed his chin. "What do we know about his history? Anything really interesting?"

Martha flipped through some more pages on her clipboard, then came to the right one. "Okay, well, he's Japanese-"

"Could tell that by his name." The Doctor cut.

Martha continued. "And…He served in the Army for three years, then left."

"Did he leave, or was his service term ended?"

"No, it says here that he resigned."

That was definitely odd. Not many people did that.

"Aah, then it doesn't say a whole lot about him…Looks like he jut kind of disappeared for a while."

"And then?"

"Okay, here's the kicker-get this. It says here, that he died five years ago, in two-thousand-seven, at age thirty one."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Really now?" He took the clipboard in one of his hands, with one of Martha's holding the other side. "What were the causes?"

"No one really knows for sure, only that it was bad. It lists several ways he could have died here, but I think that the final outcome was that he just bled to death. He was stabbed through-and-through countless times, beaten, bashed around- so many of these breaks and stab wounds could have been a nearly immediate death. Only one person was reported to have been with him at his time of death, and she didn't say anything as to what really happened."

Bewildered, he looked through the open blinds of the room that the mysterious man lay in. "Well…I can't thank you enough Martha. You've been a big help, you have."

"No problem, Doctor." She waited a moment. "It's been nice seeing you again."

"Likewise."

Then a thought came across the Doctor's mind. He had already patched up the rift in time and space. But he had never found out what caused it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And now he did know. Shirou Emiya, the Heroic Spirit that stood before him, had somehow come from another universe, caused the rift, and now was his companion.

"Whoa…I've got a Heroic Spirit for a companion." The Doctor leaned against the circular control panel, taking that fact in for a moment or two. That was pretty significant. Sure, he had come across many of those in his travels, but he hadn't really had one for a companion. This was definitely new.

Shirou chuckled. "Apparently."

**Funky ending. oh well. it was getting too long. And sorry Shirou got so badly beat up over nothing. Yeah, I don't think he was thinking. Oh well. **

**Oi, look there. There's a box. I don't think it's for time travel, though. I think it's for posting a review. That's a nice function.**


End file.
